


Only Dark Sides Have Animal Traits

by StarStorm21



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Spoilers for last episod, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:47:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24031522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarStorm21/pseuds/StarStorm21
Summary: Patton wants to tell Virgil what happened.Virgil doesn't trust Janus, especially not after he realizes something about Patton.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Morality | Patton Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders
Comments: 36
Kudos: 216





	Only Dark Sides Have Animal Traits

**Author's Note:**

> I love the Dark Sides have animal traits theory but after Patton turned into a frog in the last I've seen people giving him frog traits. So I kind of combined the theories to make this.
> 
> Frog traits people might not imminently recognize:  
> 1\. Some frogs have upside down triangle shaped pupils that sometimes look like hearts.  
> 2\. Frogs eat their food in one bite.  
> 3\. Frogs close their eyes when they swallow. (This is just a reflect for Patton not anything to do with helping him swallow.)

Virgil took a breath and looked in the mirror. Three sets of eyes stared back at him and he frowned. He wasn’t wearing his eyeshadow, allowing the four small black eyes underneath his human ones to be seen. He hated them. It was just another reminder that he wasn’t one of them, he’d never truly be an accepted side. After all, only Dark Sides had animal traits.

He hated that term, but it fit. They were the dark parts of Thomas that went too far and hurt him.

He picked up his eye shadow and carefully packed it around his spider eyes. He knew he didn’t have to make it this dark. Even something as light as the eyeliner pencil he used to use was enough to hide them, but he couldn’t take any chances. Thomas was already scared of him for being a Dark Side he didn’t need more reasons to not be trusted.

Just as he finished, he heard a knock on his door. From the polite taps in no real pattern he could tell it was Patton.

Virgil inwardly cringed. His relationship with the self-proclaimed dad of the sides had been rather strained lately. Mostly due to Virgil’s own doing. Ever since Logan had pointed out that Patton had also been to blame in allowing Remus’ ideas to keep Thomas from sleeping, he’d gotten scared.

Patton was Morality. He was good. He wasn’t supposed to hurt Thomas. Sure, he wasn’t best to be listened to in every situation, but he’d never been harmful before. And of course, Virgil couldn’t help but blame himself for that. After all he was the one Patton spent the most time with. Could he have been negatively influencing Patton? He didn’t want to take that chance.

Just another reason he’d stayed out of the post wedding discussion. Patton already had enough to handle with how disappointed Thomas was with how little Lee and Mary Lee appreciated him being there. He didn’t need Anxiety making it worse.

There was another knock at the door and Virgil realized he’d been lost in his own head again. He quickly went over and opened the door, only to be surprised by the sight before him. It was Patton, but he wasn’t smiling his usual wide happy smile. Instead his smile was more wary, and Virgil could feel the nervous energy coming off of him.

“Hey Virge, I kind of wanted to talk to you about what happened during the talk after the wedding.”

Virgil tensed. Why would Patton be nervous talking to him about that? Did something bad happen because he wasn’t there to stop it? Or did everything go really well without him to get in the way and Patton was going to tell him to stop showing up in videos all together?

“Whoa, hey Virgil look at me. You’re breathing a bit too fast there, bud.”

Virgil’s eyes snapped to Patton’s and for the first time he actually really looked at them. Virgil was never really one for eye contact, feeling way too anxious to hold it for long. This meant he never really looked at anyone’s eyes before. Sure, all the sides looked like Thomas but each of them had small things that set them apart from each other. Patton’s eyes were bigger and rounder than the others and while the same dark brown, they also had a marbled pattern around the iris. On closer inspection one could also see his pupils weren’t fully round either. Instead they bulged out a bit at the top and had a rounded point at the bottom making them look almost like harts. Very fitting for the side often referenced as Thomas’ heart.

“There you go. Slow breaths, everything’s fine.”

Oh, right he’d been hyperventilating.

“Sorry, what did you want to tell me?”

“Oh right, you mind if we go to the common room? It’ll be easier to talk there.”

“Uh sure.”

“Great.”

Patton started walking down the hall motioning Virgil to follow him. He noticed Patton had a small nervous hop in his step, but he decided to ignore it for now. Patton was always bouncy in his movements.

They were almost down the stairs when Virgil stopped dead at seeing who was sitting on the couch.

“What are you doing here?”

Patton placed a gentle hand on Virgil’s shoulder.

“I asked Janus to be here. It’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Wait Janus? You told Patton your name?”

“I told everyone my name. Well except Logan he left before that happened.”

Patton frowned.

“Yeah I’m going to have to talk to him too. He seemed a little upset at the end.”

Janus nodded then waved his hand for them to come sit with him. Patton jumped down the last few stares and bounced over to sit next to Janus on the couch. Virgil was a bit slower and opted to sit on the coffee table instead, across from the other two sides. He didn’t like how comfortable Patton seemed sitting so close to Janus. Something had obviously happened between them and he had a feeling he wasn’t going to like it.

“So, I’m assuming he had something to do with the video, since I can’t imagine him just popping in to say his name and leaving.”

“Yeah he had a lot to say actually.”

Patton looked to Janus.

“Do you want to…?”

“No, you go ahead, my part doesn’t come until later.”

Patton nodded and started telling Virgil the events of the discussion. Virgil payed attention while also making sure to keep an eye on Janus as Patton talked.

“That was when I showed up, disguised as Logan of course.”

Virgil’s eyes snapped to Janus, but Patton then took over the explanation again.

“Right, you pointed out that while I said I agreed that Thomas should take time for himself I didn’t really act like it.”

“Yes, then you denied it and I brought up the moral question of if Thomas should sacrifice himself for others and well… Do you want to explain what happened next or should I?”

“No, I’ll do it. So, uh when Janus asked that I didn’t have an answer, but I was so scared of not having an answer that I kind of had a mental break down and um… turned into a fifteen foot tall frog monster.”

Of all the things Virgil expected Patton to say that was not anywhere close to anything on the list.

“What?”

“I turned into a frog monster.”

Patton looked away sheepishly as he played with the paws of his cat hoodie.

Suddenly something seemed to click into place. Patton’s strange eyes, the way he hopped and jumped when moving, even now with the way he was puffing out his cheeks as he tried to keep his nervous breathing under control. Patton was exhibiting frog traits. But that was impossible, only Dark Sides had animal traits. Did that mean Patton was…

Virgil took a breath and counted backwards from ten before speaking. Patton had said Janus had caused the transformation. He needed to know the rest of what happened.

“Uh ok, that’s something. So, um what happened after you… turned into a frog monster?”

Wow that was weird to say.

Patton looked down at the floor.

“I’m not really proud of what I did next.”

Janus placed a hand on Patton’s shoulder.

“It’s alright, Patton. You weren’t in your right mind.”

“I still hurt Thomas.”

Patton’s voice was muffled and quiet, but Virgil still heard it despite knowing he probably wasn’t meant to. That simple sentence made Virgil feel sick. Patton had hurt Thomas? No that couldn’t be right. Patton would never hurt Thomas.

“You didn’t know. Like I said before I don’t think your capable of that on purpose. Still you don’t have to talk about that part if you don’t want to.”

Patton nodded.

“Can you explain it? Virgil should still know what happened.”

Virgil was shifting uncomfortably at this point. He wanted to jump in and pull Patton away from Janus and get them as far away from each other as possible, but Patton was seeking comfort from Janus. If he acted too quickly Janus could easily manipulate the situation to turn Patton against him. He needed to know the full story before he could do anything.

Janus nodded to Patton’s question and continued where he’d left off.

“While Patton was… having his break down I decided it was time for me to step in before things got even more out of hand. I revealed myself and explained that anything could be taken too far, including helping other people. Patton was pushing Thomas so far he was ignoring his mental health, harming him in the process. This snapped Patton out of his frog monster form, and we continued to talk about how to better manage Thomas taking care of himself before we hit a mental health crisis. Logan then came in and talked about Effective Altruism and we all agreed that Thomas needed to learn to be a bit more selfish.”

“In moderation.”

Janus huffed.

“Yes, yes, going too far in the other direction is bad too.”

Virgil took a bit of comfort knowing Patton wasn’t completely swayed yet.

“Hey, no pouting. Thomas and I still both said you were right.”

Patton poked at Janus and Janus rolled his eyes and smiled.

“Yes, you did, and it felt so good to hear it.”

Virgil just stared at the two for a long moment.

“Wait are you saying Thomas accepts him now?”

Janus shrugged.

“Enough to listen to me on important issues at least.”

Virgil could feel his nails digging into his palms. This couldn’t be happening. Not only had Janus managed to somehow corrupt Patton but also manipulated Thomas into thinking he was worth listening too. How had he so utterly failed at his job?

No, he couldn’t panic yet, that would only give Janus another opportunity to manipulate Patton. He needed to keep his fear down long enough to figure out what to do.

“Uh well, are you guys going to finish the story?”

“What?”

“You still haven’t told me how everyone knows your name. Also wasn’t Roman there? What happened with him?”

Janus winced.

“Patton?”

“Sure thing, kiddo. Roman didn’t really take Janus being listened to well and asked how we could trust him. Janus said he didn’t have an answer for that, but he gave his name as a start. Roman…”

Patton looked down in disappointment.

“Roman laughed and said some not so nice things. So then Janus said some not so nice things back and then Roman left. I tried talking to him after I sunk out, but he didn’t want to talk to me. So, I’m letting him cool down now.”

Virgil bit his lip. He knew there was more to it. With Janus there always was, but lashing out would only put him in the same boat as Roman. That would leave Patton alone with Janus and he couldn’t let that happen.

“Ok so now what?”

“What do you mean.”

“I mean what do we do now that Janus is accepted?”

He motioned to Janus as he talked. Wow it felt weird using his name again.

Janus and Patton exchanged looks, apparently not expecting Virgil to have remained calm about this.

“Well first we could try doing something less serious and more relaxed. I made cookies. Do you guys want any?”

“Sure.”

“That would be nice.”

Patton ran into the kitchen, doing little hops as he did so, and came back with a plate of cookies. He sat it down on the coffee table next to Virgil and they started eating. Virgil watched as Patton shoved a whole cookie in his mouth and closed his eyes as he swallowed. Janus had obviously done something to Patton, and he couldn’t let it go any farther.

After all, only Dark Sides had animal traits. Right?

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really in love with frog Patton right now.  
> Other frog traits I wanted to play with but couldn't fit into this fic:  
> 1\. Frogs are near sighted (explaining Patton's glasses)  
> 2\. Frogs can see blue better than any other color (Blue is Patton's color)  
> 3\. Frogs have a tapetum lucidum like cats and dogs (Patton's eyes will glow in the dark)  
> 4\. Frogs have distress calls (Patton singing when scared)  
> 5\. Frogs will eat anything edible they can fit in their mouths (Have Patton eat strange things, could be used with Remus)


End file.
